Tim Cook Offered Steve Jobs A Piece Of His Liver

Why Is This Important?

Because a liver transplant ended up extending Jobs’ life another two-and-a-half years, but it wasn’t from Cook.

Long Story Short

Apple CEO Tim Cook offered to donate a portion of his liver to Steve Jobs, but was vehemently turned down.

Long Story

It’s well known by now that Steve Jobs had a lot of pride. The eccentric co-founder of Apple would go into interviews and meetings smelling nasty due to his all-fruit diet, but he wouldn’t shower or change up his eating regiment despite protest from others. And when he ended up getting sick with cancer, it seems Jobs' pride didn't ease up.

According to a new biography on Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli called “Becoming Steve Jobs: The Revolution of a Reckless Upstart Into A Visionary Leader”, Jobs rejected an offer from now-CEO Tim Cook to donate a portion of his own liver to help Jobs’ battle with cancer.

While the book won’t be out until March 24, Cult of Mac and Fast Company caught some snippets through Amazon’s “Look Inside the Book” feature before Amazon took most of it down.

It turns out that when Cook found out his boss needed a liver transplant and had a rare blood type, he got tested and found out that he’d be able to transfer a portion of his liver without putting himself in too much risk. But when he brought this offer to Jobs, the response was surprising.

“It was not, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ It was not, ‘I’ll think about it.’ It was not, ‘Oh, the condition I’m in . . .’ It was, ‘No, I’m not doing that!’," said Cook as quoted in the book. “He kind of popped up in bed and said that. And this was during a time when things were just terrible. Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them.”

Cook also is quoted in the book as saying he sees this response from Jobs as unselfish. "Somebody that’s selfish . . . doesn’t reply like that. I mean, here’s a guy, he’s dying, he’s very close to death because of his liver issue, and here’s someone healthy offering a way out."

As things ended up playing out, Jobs eventually got a liver transplant in 2011 that extended his life by two-and-a-half years, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography.

What an honest move by Cook to offer up a portion of his liver to his friend and colleague.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: What does it say about Jobs that he rejected Cook’s offer outright?

Disrupt Your Feed: What would it take for you to offer a piece of your liver to a friend or relative?

Drop This Fact: About 6,000 living-donor translates are performed every year in the U.S., according to another excerpt from the forthcoming Jobs biography.